The Philadelphia 76ers' big man, Joel Embiid , is one of the best players in the NBA today. The 7-foot, 280-pound Embiid has been named an All-Star in the last 7 seasons.
Heading into the 2023-24 campaign, Joel earned six consecutive All-NBA Team selections, led the NBA in scoring in back-to-back seasons, and won the NBA MVP award in 2023. He was on his way to repeating all his accomplishments this year, but as with past years, injuries prevented him from playing the minimum number of games to be eligible for the league's end-of-season awards.
Not only does Embiid think he could have won MVP, made another All-NBA Team appearance, and led the league in scoring last season, but he believes that he is good enough to be the greatest player of all time if he hadn't been hurt throughout his career.
"I think I'm that talented," declared Embiid in a recent interview with the New York Times . "If you think about it, the thing that stopped me all these years is just freak injuries. Every single playoffs, regular season, people falling on my knee or breaking my face — twice. It's always freak injuries at the wrong time."
Embiid missed his first two years in the NBA with injuries
Even before his NBA career started, Embiid started getting hurt. In March 2014, he suffered a stress fracture in his back, forcing him to miss the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments. Six days before the Sixers drafted him third overall in that year's draft, Emdid underwent foot surgery. He underwent a second surgery in 2015 and, due to injury, missed both the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.
But since finally suiting up in 2016-17, Embiid has proved to be worth the wait. After missing the playoffs in JoJo's first year, the Sixers have made seven consecutive trips to the postseason, including four 50-win seasons. However, injuries have also hounded him in the playoffs, and the Sixers have not made it past round two with him.
" Obviously you need to win championships, and to win championships you need other guys. You can't do it by yourself. I want to win so bad. But if you don't, you just got to understand that as long as you care about the right stuff, if it doesn't happen, maybe it wasn't meant to happen." added Embiid.
Joel has been dominant in the NBA
The Process has averaged at least 20 points per game in all his eight seasons. He's put up a double-double in each of the last seven campaigns and has averaged at least 30 points per game in three straight years.
He was at his healthiest during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, when he played 68 and 66 regular-season games, respectively. Last season, he was favored to repeat as scoring champion and MVP, but injuries limited him to 39 games.
There's no question that Embiid is one of the most talented big men to ever play the game. But aside from injuries, he has not found playoff success, which has prevented him from being ranked as one of the game's greatest players. As for being the GOAT , everyone knows it's not just about being talented enough.
Related: "Woefully out of shape; like scary out of shape" - Skip Bayless calls out Joel Embiid after his first game for the Team USA
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